I- Early Islamic Illustrations

Although the extent to which the early Islamic dynasties depend upon
their pre-Islamic past was limited, this was much less true for the
natural sciences like physics, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, botany, and
chemistry. There are records of the Umayyad Caliphs' attempts to obtain
scientific manuscripts of Byzantium, Iran or India. Under the Abbasids
in Baghdad, this movement gained strength (800's). Persian, Egyptian, North
African, Spanish and Central Asian (Samanid library) manuscripts were
the results of the learnings of the dispersed Abbasid Court. The following
illustrations are mostly from these scientific books. There are also
illustrations of Kalila wa Dimna and some Persian fables of the
same era.